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OPINION

Laurence Reisman: Patriot gallops back to Pocahontas Park | Video

Todd Biron explains how he restored Patriot, the horse that stands in front of Vero Beach's Pocahontas Park. Biron picked up a broken Patriot, blown to the ground during Hurricane Matthew in October 2016, and fixed it in his south Indian River County shop. It is the second time Biron has repaired Patriot. LAURENCE REISMAN/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS

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Todd Biron smooths out repair work being done on Patriot, a statue usually seen in Pocahontas Park in Vero Beach, in his shop, Todd Biron's Classic Restoration on Dec. 7, 2016. The statue suffered major damage as Hurricane Matthew passed near the Treasure Coast in October. "When the statue finally got to my shop the tail was broken, one of the front legs was severely damaged and there were several puncture wounds," Biron said. "This statue has been around for as long as I can remember. It's pretty much the remnant of my childhood that still exists in the park." Biron said he will be working on the statue at least two days a week and hopes to have it ready before the Hibiscus Festival in April.(Photo: PATRICK DOVE/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS)Buy Photo

Patriot, the rearing fiberglass horse that welcomes visitors to Pocahontas Park, has been at Todd Biron’s shop just north of Oslo Road on 12th Avenue Southwest for about five months. It’s there Biron, 50, restores vehicles more than 20 years old.

It also is where he has been working since early October to restore Patriot, slammed to the ground in the middle of Hurricane Matthew. By the time Biron, who also refurbished Patriot in 2009, found the horse at the park, it had a broken leg and tail with a serious case of road rash.

Late last week in his shop, Biron was working on a couple of 1950s-era pickups. The coolest motorized conveyance he had was a 1929 Marmon, from an Indianapolis-based manufacturer founded in 1903.

Outside, Patriot was glistening in the sun, showing off its top-quality automotive clear coat finish donated by Finish Master, a longtime Vero Beach company. To me, the horse looked new. But Biron and I know better.

We don’t know exactly when Patriot, originally a horse with no name, first graced the park. Pam Cooper, a historian who recently retired as the Indian River County Library’s genealogy chief, has been trying to determine an exact date for months. But she hasn’t been able to find documents or pictures to pinpoint one.

On Monday, Scott Chisholm, an assistant recreation director for the city, told me director Charles Parks bought it in the early 1970s. Parks’ successor, Pat Callahan, said the horse was here when she arrived in 1970. City recreation officials could not be reached for comment.

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Patriot, the mascot horse statue at Pocahontas Park in Vero Beach, became dislodged from his post during Hurricane Matthew in October 2016.(Photo: LAMAUR STANCIL/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS)

My wife, Lee, 57, remembers the horse in the park when she was a child. Her contemporary, Eric Menger, the city’s airport director, doesn’t remember the horse there when his father, Howard, painted a miniature western town added to the park in the early 1960s.

The best guess is Patriot about 50 years old.

Biron said childhood memories are why he has so much interest in preserving the horse.

The other day he recalled standing across the street from the park, holding his grandmother’s hand when he was 3. He looked up, saw the horse and bolted across 14th Avenue, only to be struck by a car. He remembered the Press Journal publishing a picture of a police officer comforting him. Cooper found it the other day, in an April 1970 newspaper.

“I had so many memories from when I was a kid,” Biron said of his love for the park and the horse. “It’s cool. When you look at (the horse) as a kid, it’s just so big.”

Thanks to his efforts, the horse will be re-bolted into the ground Tuesday morning at the park.

Biron's not the first person to offer the horse some TLC. In 2003, Patriot was renovated by sculptor Bob Coon, with help from students at Indian River Charter High School and the Vero Beach Museum of Art.

That year, Pocahontas Park was renovated and Patriot was named following a contest involving Indian River County schoolchildren. The city’s Recreation Commission liked the name suggested by Deirdre Creech's fifth-grade class at Rosewood Magnet School.

"We name the horse Patriot because a patriot is someone who represents America well and that horse represents the city of Vero Beach," the class wrote at the time. More than 20 other names, from Ocean Breeze to Ais, did not make the cut.

Almost 15 years later, Patriot is a downtown icon. And Biron has shown again to be a great guardian of his former playing grounds. He just donated 100 to 150 hours fixing the horse and some of the $1,500 in materials required.

“You want it to look good,” Biron said.

So head down to Pocahontas Park at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday to see the horse reinstalled.

This column reflects the opinion of Laurence Reisman. Contact him via email at larry.reisman@tcpalm.com, phone at 772-978-2223, Facebook.com/larryreisman or Twitter @LaurenceReisman.